Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: you open the account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the account through ACATS. Oppenheimer prices leaving at a single combined $125 line that covers both retail brokerage accounts and IRAs alike: the schedule does not split the two into separate figures the way several peer firms do. A separate $90 annual IRA custodial fee applies for every year the retirement account stays open. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from Oppenheimer’s own Brokerage Relationship and Disclosure Guide For Retail Broker-Dealer Clients (dated June 15, 2026, and the current live document on oppenheimer.com as of October 9, 2026), fetched directly from oppenheimer.com.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| IRA/Retail Account Termination Fee (final distribution or transfer of assets to another institution) | $125.00 | Per account, IRA and retail combined |
| Custodial Fee: IRA Accounts | $90.00 | Per year |
One line does the work most firms split in two. The disclosure guide’s fee table names the charge exactly as “IRA/Retail Account Termination Fee (Final Distribution or Transfer of Assets to another Financial Institution) $125.00”: a single figure whether the account leaving is a taxable brokerage account or an IRA. No separate partial-transfer fee appears anywhere in the same table, and no waiver condition is published for either the termination fee or the custodial fee.
No partial-transfer-out fee is itemized separately from the combined $125.00 termination line.
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionClosing the account vs transferring it: the $125.00 transfer-out fee
Closing an account and transferring it are different events. A transfer in kind moves your holdings to the new firm as they are. Closing by selling everything and withdrawing the cash is a liquidation. A liquidation is a taxable event; a transfer in kind is not, see IRS Publication 550 and Publication 590-B.
How do I close an Oppenheimer account?
To leave without selling, open the account at the receiving firm and start the transfer there. To close by liquidating, sell the holdings and withdraw the cash. The charge for moving the account is covered in the next answer.
What is the Oppenheimer transfer out fee?
The Oppenheimer Brokerage Relationship and Disclosure Guide for Retail Broker-Dealer Clients lists “IRA/Retail Account Termination Fee (final distribution or transfer of assets to another institution)” at $125.00, charged per account, IRA and retail combined.
What is the Oppenheimer ACAT fee?
ACATS is the system the receiving firm uses to pull an account. The amount published for sending an account out is $125.00, from the Oppenheimer Brokerage Relationship and Disclosure Guide for Retail Broker-Dealer Clients.
The sequence
1. Pull a current statement for every account, showing the exact registration, account numbers and complete holdings list. 2. Check the holdings for anything that will not move. Ask the receiving firm directly: “Can you hold every position on this statement?” Anything they cannot hold has to be sold, and in a taxable account that is a realised gain in the year you switch: the categories that commonly do not transfer. 3. Open the receiving account and sign the transfer form there. Under FINRA Rule 11870 the delivering firm then has one business day to validate and three business days after validation to complete. 4. Send a dated termination letter for the record, the generator writes it, and confirm in writing that billing has stopped.
Two things to get right
Cost basis. Under IRC §6045A the delivering broker must furnish a transfer statement carrying basis for covered securities within 15 days of the transfer. Keep your final statements anyway, and check the first statement at the new firm for positions showing a missing or zero basis. Retirement accounts move as a direct transfer, trustee to trustee, not as a distribution to you. Why that distinction matters. Budget $125 for the exit charge and leave the cash to cover it in the account rather than sweeping the balance to zero first. Whether the fee is worth paying at all is a question of what you are moving to: our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules puts the weighted median annual cost near $2,000 to $2,500 on $250,000: the benchmark. The general mechanics: switching financial advisors. To put the exit charge next to the fee you would stop paying, the switching advisors cost calculator returns the break-even in months.
Three more exits from insurance-affiliated and bank-affiliated advisory programs, each with a firm-owned published transfer figure: MassMutual, TIAA Wealth Management, and Voya Financial Advisors.
Want to know what Oppenheimer & Co. charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Oppenheimer & Co.’s own fee disclosure.
Before you decide to leave Oppenheimer & Co., check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Oppenheimer & Co. review, including its fiduciary status and what it costs to leave.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.